By Anushree Dave

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, continued to consolidate its strong 2023 gain, holding above $30,000 on Monday.

Bitcoin was up 1% at $30,877 over the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. It’s rallied 86% so far in 2023, shaking off a U.S. regulatory crackdown on the crypto industry as traders appeared to take comfort in Wall Street interest in crypto-related trading products.

Bitcoin has held its own after news reports last week said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wasn’t satisfied with a wave of applications filed in June for spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

“Nothing meaningful is happening in the crypto markets,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. “We are in wait-and-see mode to see if and what additional data BlackRock and Fidelity will provide to get a Bitcoin ETF done.”

Some issuers, like Cboe, have decided to refile their applications. A Cboe spokesperson confirmed with MarketWatch that the Cboe filings had been updated and resubmitted on Friday.

“Bitcoin has been consolidating in a sideways range for the past 10 days,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst, in a note.

“Only a consolidation outside the [$30,000-$31,000] range would signal that the market has decided on a medium-term direction for a breakout. The long-term trend has been bullish since last November, within which severe drawdowns sometimes occur,” he wrote.

Bitcoin broke the $30,000 barrier on June 22 for the first time since April. The rally came despite a month of regulatory crackdowns across the industry, including the SEC suing crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase. Bitcoin remains well below its peak of more than $65,000 set in November 2021.

-Anushree Dave

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-03-23 1137ET

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.